U.S. stock futures headed lower Thursday as worries about earnings growth dented sentiment, though corporate results weren’t entirely bad, as Ford Motor swung to a profit.

Ford Motor Co. surprised Wall Street on Thursday with a US$100 million profit in the first quarter on strong results from Europe and South America.

Meanwhile, Apple recorded 36% profit growth and 43% sales growth for its fiscal second quarter, but its current quarter outlook issued Wednesday was on the cautious side.

At online retailer Amazon, flat margins offset a 30% profit rise.

Starbucks warned second-quarter and annual profit will be hurt by decreased traffic at U.S. stores.

Whirlpool cut its earnings outlook for the year.

The earnings picture is much brigher for Canadian stocks. Suncor Energy Inc. reported first quarter 2008 net earnings of $708 million, or $1.53 per common share, compared to $576 million or $1.25 per common share in the first quarter of 2007.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. announced a record profit in the first quarter with net income of US$566 million, up from $198 million a year earlier.

Celestica Inc. post Q1 net income of US$28.9 million, up from a year-earlier loss of US$34.3 million.

In today’s economic news, Statistics Canada reported online sales increased at a double-digit pace for the sixth consecutive year in 2007. Total private and public sector Internet sales hit an estimated $62.7 billion, up 26% from 2006.

The Canadian dollar opened at US98.40¢, up 0.10 cent from Wednesday.

South of the border, demand for big-ticket items declined for a third straight month in March. Weekly jobless claims unexpectedly fell last week.

Oil futures fell 80¢ to US$117.50 a barrel and gold futures broke back under the US$900-an-ounce mark.

Overseas, the Shanghai composite index had its biggest gain in more than six years, rising 9.3% to 3,583. The Hong Kong Hang Seng rose 1.6% to 25,680.78.

Late Wednesday, the Chinese government said it would cut its duty on stock transactions to 0.1% from 0.3%, the second measure this week aimed at boosting China’s flagging stock markets.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.3% to 13,540.87.

The FTSE 100 index was down 2% near midday in London, losing 119.2 points to 5,964.4. The German DAX lost 0.9% after a report of slumping business confidence, while the French CAC-40 declined 1.4%.

Slumping materials and financial issues dragged Toronto markets lower Wednesday, as the Dow finished higher in New York.

The S&P/TSX Composite index tumbled 196.54 points, or 1.38%, at 14,069.80, as just three of the ten major TSX groups made gains today.

The junior S&P/TSX Venture composite index closed down 40.56 points, or 1.59%, at 2516.92.

In New York, better-than-expected profits from Boeing Co. pushed the Dow Jones industrial average up, keeping markets in the black despite a substantial tumble in Ambac shares.

The Dow jumped 42.99 points, or 0.34%, to 12,763.22.

The S&P 500 gained 3.99 points, or 0.29%, to close at 1,379.93.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed up 28.27 points, or 1.19%, at 2,405.21.